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The Iranian-sponsored Hizbullah was believed to have received long-range variants of the Scud-class ballistic missile. Western intelligence sources said Syria has been supplying Hizbullah with the Scud C missile, with a range of 550 kilometers. They said a Syrian shipment of Scud Cs to Lebanon was detected in early 2010 in a transfer arranged and financed by Iran. "There is a stockpile of [Hizbullah] weapons, short-range, medium-range and perhaps even long-range missiles, and we are concerned," French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said. Kouchner, in a French radio interview on May 2, did not provide details of the Syrian missile transfer...

Nearly four years after Hezbollah fought invading Israeli troops to a standstill in south Lebanon, the militant Shiite group says it's prepared for a fresh conflict and confident of victory. "We are ready for another war and we eagerly await it," says veteran Hezbollah fighter Abu Hadi on a drive through the Bekaa Valley. "We expect the next war to be short. The Israelis will not be able to endure what we will do to them." Hezbollah's leadership insists it does not seek a war and that its military preparations are a defense against potential Israeli aggression. Yet, the inconclusive...

Israel's mounting alarm at Hezbollah's reported acquisition of increasing numbers of long-range missiles stems in part from concern for the security of the country's emerging infrastructure. Jane's Intelligence Review reported the Israelis are concerned that their drive to develop an energy infrastructure built around the natural gas fields recently discovered in the Mediterranean off the northern port of Haifa would be put at risk by Hezbollah's swelling arsenal. The magazine, published in Britain, said the "relatively unsophisticated nature of Hezbollah's arsenal means that the militants' ability to successfully target individual critical energy sites in and around Haifa would be limited....

The chief of Lebanon's Shiite Hezbollah movement said on Saturday it had a "legal" right to own any weapon it wishes, but would not confirm or deny Israeli allegations it was stockpiling Scud missiles. "The Scud (issue) emerged a while ago... and it created a lot of fuss," Hassan Nasrallah said in his first public reaction to the controversy, according to a statement from Hezbollah's press office. "We do not confirm or deny if we have received weapons or not, so we do not comment and we will not comment," he told a committee in charge of security, financial and...

The United States said Wednesday it considered "all options" on the table if Syria is found to have supplied Scud missiles to Hezbollah, posing a major threat for Israel. Jeffrey Feltman, the assistant secretary of state for the Middle East, said the United States would have "really, really serious concern" if Syria delivered such high-grade weapons to the Lebanese Shiite militia. "If these reports turn out to be true, we're going to have to review the full range of tools that are available for us in order to make Syria reverse what would be an incendiary, provocative action," Feltman said....

BEIRUT — Lebanon's Western-backed prime minister has compared Israeli accusations that Hizbullah has obtained Scud missiles to charges that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction ahead of the 2003 US-led invasion. Saad Hariri's comments, made late Monday in Italy and carried by Lebanese media Tuesday, come after President Shimon Peres accused Syria last week of providing the Lebanese terrorist group with Scuds.

The Syrian government claimed Israel is using the Scud ballistic missile transfer to try to create an excuse for launching a war. "Israel aims from this to raise tension further in the region and to create an atmosphere for probable Israeli aggression," the Syrian Foreign Ministry said in a statement The U.S., however, is not happy with the Syrian transfer of missiles to Lebanon - and an expert says Israel will have to take action. Prof. Eyal Zisser, head of the Dayan Center for Middle Eastern Studies in Tel Aviv University, told Arutz-7 that the news requires Israel to make...

Hizbullah could tip its rocket arsenal with Iranian-supplied nuclear warheads, a report said. The Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies stated that Iran could supply its proxies with tactical nuclear warheads. In a report, BESA said Iran was likely to use its nuclear arsenal to wage what the report termed "nuclear terrorism against Israel." "Rockets, such as those already in Hizbullah's possession, could be fitted with nuclear warheads." "The potential means of conducting nuclear terrorism against Israel would be similar to those applicable to other countries — sea, air, and land-based — with one important addition: rockets," the report, authored by...

A Hezbollah government minister said on Friday that whether or not they have acquired scud missiles is none of Israel's business. Minister Hussein Haj Hassan says the group was always arming and preparing itself but he refused to confirm or deny Israeli allegations that the militant Lebanese group has acquired Scud missiles. Israel's president Shimon Peres earlier this week directly accused Damascus of providing the scud missiles, a charge Syria denied. A Hezbollah government minister said on Friday that whether or not they have acquired scud missiles is none of Israel's business. Minister Hussein Haj Hassan says the group was...

By Anshel Pfeffer, April 15, 2010 Syria smuggled long-range missiles to Hizbollah in Lebanon earlier this year, leading to Israeli threats to attack the weapons convoys, it has emerged. Such an attack could have escalated into another war on Israel’s northern border. According to a report on Monday in a Kuwaiti newspaper, Israeli and other Western intelligence agencies received information that Hizbollah members were being trained in Syria in the use of Scud missiles. These missiles, which have a range of over 300 kilometres, were used by Iraq in 1991 to attack Israeli cities and are much larger than the...

JERUSALEM—Syria has transferred long-range Scud missiles to the Lebanese Shiite militant group Hezbollah, Israeli and U.S. officials alleged, in a move that threatens to alter the Middle East's military balance and sets back a major diplomatic outreach effort to Damascus by the Obama administration.

"Air Force strikes in Gaza" SNIPPET: "IDF retaliates for deadly Qassam attack: Air Force hits several Gaza targets, including metal foundry, smuggling tunnel; Vice PM Shalom says Israel to offer strong response to rocket attack that killed Thai worker Thursday" SNIPPET: "IDF aircraft struck at least four targets in the Gaza Strip on Friday, a day after a rocket fired from the Palestinian enclave killed a Thai worker in Israel, Hamas security officials and witnesses said." SNIPPET: "Israel also sent a letter of complaint to United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, who is due to visit Israel at the weekend,...

A "Scud Crisis" is threatening to ignite an all-out war between Israel and Hizbullah, the Kuwaiti al-Rai newspaper reported. The daily said that Syria has delivered to Hizbullah Scud missiles, sparking a behind-the-scenes crisis after Israel informed Washington that "it will take steps if the U.S. didn't find a solution to what the Jewish state considers a threat to its security." Following the Israeli warning, the U.S. State Department summoned Syrian ambassador Imad Mustafa and asked him "to inform his government about the level of danger if the missiles crossed the border," al-Rai said. Washington also reportedly told Mustafa that...

The U.S. intelligence community has determined that Syria has become a regional missile threat. Officials said the intelligence community has concluded that Syria could attack every one of its neighbors with short- and medium-range ballistic missiles. They said the Syrian surface-to-surface weapons could be enhanced with biological and chemical warheads. "All of Syria's missiles are mobile and can reach much of Israel and large portions of Iraq, Jordan and Turkey from launch sites well within the country," a report by the Defense Department said. The Pentagon report, citing assessments by its Defense Intelligence Agency, said Syria's missile arsenal consists of...

Mideast: Iran tests an advanced warhead design as it gets caught shipping weapons to Hezbollah. Syria is reported to give the group operational control over Scud missiles. It's five minutes to midnight. Tyranny abhors a vacuum. While the U.S. and the West dither in Hamlet-like fashion over whatever we shall do in places such as Afghanistan and Iran, the Axis of Evil is in full swing in its plans to destroy Israel and threaten Europe and America. Israel last week seized what it said was the largest arms cache ever intercepted in the region. Israeli navy commandos boarded the Francop,...

Arab media in the Persian Gulf have been reporting that Syria, apparently on the orders of Iran, has turned over about 300 long range ballistic missiles to Hezbollah control. The missiles have apparently not left Syria (they would be hard to miss, being driven around southern Lebanon). The reports add that Hezbollah personnel are being trained to operate the missiles. Syria has underground storage and launch facilities for its arsenal of over a thousand SCUD missiles. Armed with half ton high explosive and cluster bomb warheads, the missiles have ranges of 500-700 kilometers. Syria also has some 90 older Russian...

Security: An Iranian mullah once said "a world without America and Zionism" was a real possibility. Our sellout of Eastern Europe and missile defense brings that dream closer to reality. It would take only one warhead."Is it possible for us to witness a world without America and Zionism?" Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad asked at a "World Without Zionism" conference in Tehran in 2005. "But you had best know that this slogan and this goal are attainable, and surely can be achieved." He added that Iran had a strategic "war preparation plan" for what it called "the destruction of Anglo-Saxon civilization." A...

Strategic Defense: A new report says the United States must develop robust missile and space defenses to counter China. If you think the current economic crisis is something, imagine the effects of a nuke over Iowa.Imagine a world in which you can't get money from your bank or can't get a loan. You can't get money from your ATM even if it's within walking distance. You can't drive to one because your car won't work. No, it's not what would happen if the Congress doesn't pass a bailout bill. This is a small snapshot of what would happen if a...

20 Killed in Failed Syrian Scud Missile Test by Hana Levi Julian (IsraelNN.com) At least 20 Syrian civilians were killed and 60 were wounded in a failed missile test in May, Japan's Kyodo News reported Friday. The test involved two updated Scud missiles developed together by Syria, North Korea and Iran. Both exhibited defective guidance systems, according to a Middle Eastern military source quoted in the report. One of the short-range ballistic missiles hit a market near the Syrian-Turkish border, causing dozens of civilian casualties. Syrian forces attributed the blast to a gas explosion and blocked off the site to...

SDI: If you missed the news, which isn't hard given how poorly these things are covered, our "unproven" missile defense proved itself again last week, when a U.S. warship downed a simulated North Korean missile in flight.The test, conducted in Hawaiian waters by the Navy and the Department of Defense's Missile Defense Agency (MDA), was the 23rd firing by ships equipped with the Aegis ballistic missile defense system. It was the 19th success, including the shoot-down of a dead U.S. spy satellite last year. A short-range ballistic missile simulating a missile like North Korea's Nodongs or Scuds was fired from...